"Sir, the people whom I am come to represent will scarcely submit to such condition."
Then it was that Captain Ardesoif flew into a passion, giving no heed to the possibility that it might be dangerous to allow his tongue free rein.
"Represent!" he cried in a fury. "You insolent rebel, if you dare speak in such language I will have you hung up at the yard-arm," and the redcoated captain pointed to his ship, which lay in the harbor.
I had never set myself down as a member of the James family if such words had been allowed to pass unnoticed, but those who know my uncle could have told the captain that he was most unwise in attempting to force us into any agreement.
The king's officer was armed, and my uncle, clad in a garb such as is worn by us of Williamsburg, carried no weapons. This fact, however, had no weight with Major James.
Seizing the chair upon which he sat he rushed upon the insolent Britisher, striking him senseless with a single blow, and then making his escape at once, for the king's soldiers were there in force, he mounted his horse and fled from the town.
All possibility that we of Williamsburg would "submit" had vanished, and within four and twenty hours came the enrolment of that body of true gentlemen and noble soldiers who were afterward known, and the memory of whom will live so long as the history of these colonies are told, as "Marion's Brigade."
It was the major, as a matter of course, who took command of these volunteers, and they were divided into four companies, each under a captain.
The first was led by William M'Cottry; Henry Mouzon had command of the second. John of the Lake—another branch of the James family, and an uncle to the major—was captain of the third, while John McCauley stood at the head of the fourth division.
These gentlemen, who had come together within less than four and twenty hours after my uncle's interview with the representative of his majesty at Georgetown were all residents of the district of Williamsburg, and were rendezvoused on the banks of Lynch's Creek nearby where it joins the Great Pedee River within less than two miles of my mother's home.